RIP Ike Skelton, 1931-2013

I have been lucky, these past fifteen years or so, in that a succession of bosses who had rank and authority over me decided, after an initial getting-to-know each other period, to leave me almost entirely to my own devices in the intellectual realm. Both in the Pentagon, combat zones, and headquarters well away from any shooting, each of these bosses gave me free rein.

"Bateman says he needs to go watch a Congressional hearing today, should we let him?"

"Yeah, I heard Scales is talking. Have him see me when he gets back."

So it was that one day, about a decade ago, I left the Pentagon in the middle of the work day, swung by my house to switch into "civvies," and then walked to the House Armed Services Committee hearing scheduled for that day. One of the generals I respect, Major General (Retired) Robert Scales was testifying that day, along with a few others, about the state of "Professional Military Education" (PME). This was a topic near and dear to my heart, and one that I thought vital for the safety of the nation. Raising an Army of millions of men is complex, but it is not technically difficult. We have done it a lot. Raising a professional Army filled with men and women who know what the hell they are doing is extremely difficult. Ask Russia or China.

PME is probably not something you have heard of before, and that is not surprising. Education is not the "sexy" or "cool" part of the military, or the part that usually attracts much attention, so only an infinitesimally small number of civilians know anything about it at all. This is disappointing, but understandable.

So there I sat, about four rows back and off to the side to watch the testimony and the hearing. Predictably, CSPAN was not there. See again my comment about PME not being "sexy" or "cool." Nothing further needs to be noted then, because if flipping CSPAN thinks you're too boring for CSPAN 1, CSPAN 2, or CSPAN 3, you probably are, exactly, that.

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Scales launched into a masterfully complete and passionate lecture on the importance of PME to all of the services. Replete with historical analogies, quantifiable data, and specific case studies, his time on the record should have carried the day. And that might have been the case, if the chairs on the Congressman's side of the room had been filled, of course, which is a whole other issue for another time. At the conclusion, he handed it back to the Chairman of the HASC. This is normal protocol, and usually the Chairman of any Committee is content to then immediately pass to the next witness/testifier. Not this time.

This time the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee launched into his own, apparently unscripted, validation speech. The Chairman talked about the importance of PME to the present all-volunteer military, he touched upon the failures of the past when a massive military had to sort of wing it as best they could with officers who had, until weeks or months earlier, been shopkeepers or lawyers, or even (gasp) politicians. And then the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee blew my mind.

He went into a detailed, complete, and totally accurate account of the career trajectory of Troy Middleton.

Who?

Yeah, "Who?" is the question that I am sure most in that room were asking. But if you were a professional military historian (and, I am pretty sure, only Scales and I met that description in that room), you could not mistake his point.

Troy Middleton, little known that he may be now, was probably the best Corps commander in the United States Army during the Second World War. If you want to ask, "Who really saved our bacon during the Battle of the Bulge?" most amateurs might guess, "George Patton." Patton, though an asshole, does deserve credit, but the star should have been Troy Middleton. He is the one who told Patton, "No, you are wrong." And then won the battle in his sector.

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Without going into Middleton's entire career, suffice it to say that the man was damned smart, and professional, and most importantly, professionally educated. In fact, if you were to pick a single pre-2001 poster-child for the importance of professional military education, Troy Middleton would be that man. But what the hell? What is the chairman of HASC doing, actually riffing, factually, on this point and using evidence that you damned near well need a PhD in History to even understand?

That Chairman was Isaac Newton ("Ike") Skelton, D-Mo, and he was what Congress is supposed to be about. He died yesterday, and this whole essay is intended to make you understand how totally cool, intelligent, educated, and flexible the man was.

Born in the 1930s, Skelton was too young to fight in WWII, and then essentially too old to fight in Vietnam. I have a vague impression that he felt a little bit guilty about the accident of his timing, but that might just be me. Skelton was a Democrat, but unlike some of what we see today, he was a man who could compromise. Yes, he held certain strong values and he was an iconoclast. He was opposed to abortion and gun control, for example. But on other issues he could sway, if he saw that the compromise was for the overall good of the nation. And he knew history, and military history, and when he became the Chairman of the HASC, arguably one of the most powerful legislative sub-bodies in human history, he brought his self-education, personal discipline, and intelligence to try his best to defend the nation.

And he raised men. One of them is an Army officer who like his father made a career of serving the nation.

To Democrats and Republicans alike: If you want to protect the nation, make more men like Isaac Newton Skelton. The rest of us depend upon you to do that one simple thing.

These are the opinions of the author, and nobody else, but I would be really surprised if anyone disagreed with the brilliant service of Ike Skelton. You can reach me at R_Bateman_LTC@hotmail.com.